ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The number of people being booked into the Orange County jail on gun-related charges fell to their lowest level since the pandemic began, data compiled by the jail showed, just two years after the county struggled under a surge of violent crime.
1,415 people were booked into the jail last year on those charges, a 32% reduction since 2,094 people were arrested in 2023 and lower than the 1,615 arrests in 2020, when the pandemic began.
The trends spanned agencies that included the two largest, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the Orlando Police Department, as well as smaller agencies like Winter Garden.
The Orlando metro area is not alone in this. Researchers with the Council on Criminal Justice published a report last week that showed the nation’s homicide rate was lower than any time since 1900 after falling 20% last year.
“Is that our floor, can we drop lower? That’s a question that we can’t answer,” Ernesto Lopez, one of the authors of the report, said.
Lopez spoke to seven researchers about why this trend was happening. Their responses could be grouped into three categories:
- People have calmed down since the turmoil of the pandemic.
- A flood of investments were made into communities and outreach groups to combat the increase in crime.
- Police agencies got better at solving cases.
Additionally, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office theorized Florida’s new open-carry laws were playing a role in the decrease in arrests.
Miles Mulrain, an anti-gun violence activist and the leader of Let Your Voice Be Heard, also had a few thoughts about the trend.
Strolling through the Callahan community in Orlando’s Parramore neighborhood Monday, he remarked that the community was much safer than before.
“We came a long way,” Mulrain said. “I was out when we had a shootings three days back-to-back, a three-year-old, a 13-year-old, a 15-year-old, and we were at every scene with every family. We haven’t had one of those weekends in years.”
Mulrain’s work is funded by the Citizens Safety Task Force, which Orange County relaunched in 2023 to combat the outbreak of crimes involving youth, including the murder of 9-year-old T’Yonna Major in her bedroom in Pine Hills.
The task force funded the work of smaller, on-the-ground organizations who connect with youth and at-risk people. Mulrain said it has made a difference.
“I know how many kids that we’re touching personally, I know how many groups -- how many kids other groups are touching,” he said. “I know that when we out in the communities talking to people, they’re more interactive with the resources.”
Mulrain, when asked about 2026, said they still had work to do.
Researchers were hesitant to make predictions about the upcoming year and whether another drop was possible. They said it might be tough, especially with a cut to federal funding and amid concerns more aggressive federal law enforcement actions – like ICE in Minneapolis – would lead to less trust in law enforcement, which tends to lead to a rise in crime in turn.
“I think when we want to really understand homicide, we also shouldn’t pat ourselves on the back like it’s a job well done, because it’s quite possible that we can bring the rate down even more and save even more lives,” Lopez said.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2026 Cox Media Group
